Creating video content that converts with Dan Bennett

Dave Crysler

Hello and welcome to the Everyday Business Problems podcast. I’m your host, Dave Crysler. Each episode we talk to business owners and leaders to learn about their story, their business, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the challenges they still face. You’ll hear fresh insights, real talk, and get inspiration to grow your business.

Hey everybody, I’m so excited today to welcome Dan Bennett to the podcast. Dan is a podcaster, storyteller, YouTuber, consultant, and creator of 1 minute media.

Dan, thanks so much for joining us on the Everyday Business Problems podcast.

Dan Bennett

Hey, thanks for having me. I’ve been looking forward to this for a minute. And any problem I can help solve, I’m all in.

Dave Crysler

Yeah man, you have an awesome story; you’re a really great guy, and I’m so stoked to kind of get into this with you and just learn a little bit more about your story, and your business, and everything that you’ve got going on.

Dan Bennett

So, yeah, I’m an open book. Let’s do it.

Dave Crysler

Cool. So what was the dream behind, you know, the business that you originally started? What was the dream for you?

Dan Bennett

The driving factor early on was actually a very real kind of case study that happened in front of me. And it was a friend of mine who was in art college. I believe she went to Kendall College here in Michigan and was very, very talented. And their senior project was to create packaging for a beauty brand. And so she did all this layout design, physical packaging for this final presentation.

And I went and checked out all the senior projects, you know, and hers was incredible like it easily could have sold to any major manufacturer. And she graduated, you know, high GPA, raving reviews, a great portfolio, and ended up at Dow Chemical laying out brochures.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. But she hated it. And I was doing small work for small companies at the time, just kind of getting going. And even though she was making technically at the time more than me and had benefits and all those things, she’s like, I wish I was doing what you’re doing.

And I’m like, well, I don’t have medical insurance and I’m not making as much as you. So why? You know, and it was because of the freedom and being able to kind of choose who I work with and not just laying out brochures for a chemical company.

So that was kind of the genesis was, you know, I just want to make enough revenue to hire really creative people, even if it’s only a couple of them. So someone out there who put in all that time and is really talented and creative can work for a company doing cool things that are kind of rewarding instead of just plugging into the machine. And that was kind of the genesis of what drove me to want to start a business.

Dave Crysler

Yeah, I think to that point, there are so many people out there and available and some people, whether it’s because they don’t have the skill set, the mindset, maybe they just don’t have the confidence, that’s all that they’re lacking. But there are a lot of people out there that have the raw talent to do a lot of different things and maybe just don’t have that little belief in them and look for ways to partner up with people such as yourself.

So that’s a really cool kind of entry point into recognizing that there are a lot of people out there that have the skills and ability. How can we harness that, how can we do more of what I really enjoyed doing while taking advantage of their creative talents, because to your point, nothing wrong with working for that’s a significantly sized company to be in their design, but know it is limiting.

There’s kind of pre-determined scopes of work when you’re in a setting like that.

Dan Bennett

Right. Right. Yeah. And a lot of those people do kind of, you know, just plug into the track and go, I actually have done some work with Specs Howard, which is audio-video, in Michigan, a college. And they always brought me into their like business development days and they’re like job fairs and all that kind of stuff because I knew I would rock the boat a little bit. And all the other vendors would be your typical, you know, video production companies, wedding film companies, whatever.

And I would see all these you know, I call them kids because I’m older than them. I see all these kids, most of them are recent graduates or a year or two out. And they got like ties on and like power suits and dresses that looked really uncomfortable, you know, and they’d walk up to my table and I’m just like jeans and a T-shirt and a skull on my shirt. And I’m like, you know, loosen the tie up, bro, like, let’s just have a conversation.

And a lot of times I would take a resume and I would look at it and look around it. And I’m like, OK, you’re in a safe space here. Like, what do you love doing? Because you do all the things here. You do editing and filming. You get to touch everything when you’re in like film school. What do you love?

And they’d say, well, you know, I actually love writing, I love writing, but there’s not a lot of that work right here in Michigan. So I got really good at operating the camera because I know I can go get hired or whatever.

And I’d have these real conversations with people like, you know, you only live once. You might want to look into that writing thing and go hard after it. And remember, Michigan is only one of 50 states, so there’s something broader.

And I still try and help anywhere I can, even when it’s just training a business owner how to shoot their own video with my help, because so much is possible and there’s so much talent just kind of sitting around in drawers, you know?

Dave Crysler

Yeah, it’s amazing. You know what I really love about that, just kind of that encouragement factor for people. I’m a big proponent. You know, success means different things for different people. And I also think, you know, there is no linear pathway to it. Right?

Dan Bennett

Right.

Dave Crysler

Sometimes its twists and turns. You know, we’re going to hear probably a little bit about that with your story. And, you know, it’s just so cool and refreshing to know that there are other people out there that really kind of want to dig below the surface.

And even though somebody may be kind of stuck, let’s say, in a certain area or vertical or something, there really is something behind peeling that back and going after what you really you know, what really gets you going, because, you know, that’s the pathway to success.

And, you know, I think sometimes it takes a different amount of time for people to recognize that whether they go into that kind of that job, doing that thing and recognize, man, this is just a life suck. And I just can’t do this anymore.

And I think part of what’s interesting to me and it kind of gets into our next question, but what I think is interesting about going through the pandemic, I think a lot of that really got pushed forward. I mean, do you feel the same way?

Have you seen the same kinds of things? And then so that’s kind of part A to the question. And I really want to dig into your experience specifically in the pandemic. What was business like beforehand? How did the pandemic impact you and, you know, kind of transitioning into what life is like now after, you know, on the tail end of coming out of that?

Dan Bennett

Yeah, I saw that quite a bit. No, I know a lot of people in the space of content creation, digital marketing, things like that in Michigan, and had a lot of conversations as that stuff was going down. How are you guys adapting? What are you doing? Let’s at least stay in communication with each other. So I got a pretty decent scope, at least locally, of kind of what was going on during that time.

And everyone was using the word pivot, rightfully so. I did, too. But I hate trendy stuff in the whole Antipreneur moniker I carry is like, you know, push back against the status quo. So I’m always trying to, you know, only use trendy words and trendy things when I have to because people understand.

So it’s kind of making fun of the word pivot at the time a little just because I’m like, oh, don’t we have any better words we can use? And so a word I started using that to replace pivot, but use it a lot more because it was what was actually happening was the word expedite.

And a lot of things were expedited during that time. Now, part of the expedition might have been you don’t have the cash reserves you should have as a business. And now those are depleted and you’re gone. And so the expedition was you being on your way out sooner than had the pandemic not hit.

You know, people putting things into place, like getting on camera looking and sounding good, people rushing my way, going, we’re all on Zoom now. Help. How do we sound? And look at. Excuse me. And, you know, just a lot of things were like sped up.

And that was something I noticed, you know, among a million other things that were all going through. Was pivoting, but also figuring things out very quickly. And I think some, you know, some cream rose to the top there.

And luckily, I was technically ahead in the sense of I’d been on Zoom for about four years already. I do this work anyway with audio-visual. I help people there anyway. So I was able to very quickly go almost completely digital and say welcome.

And I have, you know like you said, I have my own I lovingly refer to it as the great Band-Aid rip of 2020. I have my own story and I love telling you this. Hopefully, this doesn’t sound too bad, but I love telling you because I know everyone’s got a story.

So I don’t love the fact that we all went through this and it sucked.

Dave Crysler

Right.

 Dan Bennett

But I do love that this isn’t just my story. It’s my story that happened in a time where everyone can relate because they’re like, oh, yeah, this is what I went through during that time.

And so in an eight-day period, we went from flying very high. We had a business conference coming up, speakers coming in from all over the country, location on lock, sponsors really excited to be a part of something. Tickets just went on sale.

Thank God we didn’t put them out earlier and we had to shut everything down. So that was a big part. We had recently done some hires, not because I wanted to and this is part of my story, too, but because it kind of turned out that way.

We entered into this kind of agency-type model where we had a lot of monthly retainer clients. So we were servicing a lot of people, kind of checking in every week and doing this ongoing work. And in that eight-day period, in the first three days, all ongoing work ceased.

And the good part, looking back, that I’m very thankful for is that we were essentially even with everyone in the contracts that we had. So we didn’t owe anyone any work, and no one owed us money as far as, you know, our ongoing work.

So it’s very easy to just, you know, tell everyone when they’re like, hey, stuff’s going on, we might need to cancel or pull back. It was easy to say, no problem, we’re all going through this. I get it.

So that was somewhere in the vicinity of, you know, maybe like sixty, seventy thousand dollars worth of work in just three days. And for a micro company, that’s sustenance, you know? Yeah. And then there was this today I call the calm in the storm because I have another analogy of how this all felt to me personally, like being in a storm at sea, you know, so it was like this two-day calm where nothing had been shut down yet. But you could kind of see the writing on the wall. And we were trying to figure out what we were going to do.

And people on my team, much smarter than me, were like, we got to cancel this event. And I was the only one who was like me, really? Like, you think like do we think it’s going to go that far?

And it was February when things were shut down in July was our conference. So it was a tough one. And I’m like, I think you guys are right. My gut saying you’re right, it just sucks so bad that it’s going to be tough to make the call, you know, and then we’re like, hey, we got a bunch of free time on our hands currently because all our work just went away. So what do we want to do? And I had been doing this kind of 1 minute media thing. It was called that. But it wasn’t a business or anything like that.

It was just something title I was working under, in real life already. And I was wanting to make it digital, which it now is so like coursework and private membership and all the things where you can learn the skill sets and work with me directly if you need.

I was doing it in real life, and I’m like, well, maybe we could do something to use our skillset to help people because we don’t know what’s going to happen here. So we just started something we called the 1 minute media initiative, which was literally just getting a hold of chambers of commerce.

And DDA’s in different places that work with a lot of businesses, as well as some other marketing companies that got pretty big email lists and saying, hey, we’re reaching out to, you know, businesses that have been deemed essential and offering a free video will come and shoot super easy, straightforward.

You can use that video to tell your audience how things are changing, how they can continue to patronize your location, or whatever the case may be. And some news organizations picked up on it because they thought what we were doing was cool.

That’s not why I did it. But it was helpful to get a little bit of, you know, recognition and attention on it. And then we went in and shot a batch of videos. I think we did 12 total in the whole time.

And one of them was one day I worked with the DDA and they’re like, we got an awesome community of restaurants and we all know each other and we work together as much as we can. Would you come and shoot more than one in a day?

And I’m like, that’s actually helpful. Yes. Know? So I did five, I think, at last check back, when everything was still moving in late 2020. We had somewhere around like 35,000 or 40,000 organic views on those five videos. No money behind it, no nothing.

Just, hey, we ask you hit that share button and it just proved the power of this thing that I’m doing, which is to try and help business owners leverage storytelling and video to, you know, more deeply, connect with their audience and maybe even grow their audience and grow the customer base as well.

So we kind of put that together, hodgepodge real quick got the word out. And those two days of calm went away. And then the next three days after which makes the full eight-day period, all of our outstanding proposal work went away.

And that was closer to like a 90,000 dollar swing. So it’s about 150 grand. And we don’t know if we would have landed every proposal.

Dave Crysler

Right.

Dan Bennett

But it was a good swing, you know, and that’s why I call it a Band-Aid rip, because it was like, OK, well, what are we going to do now?

I got a small PPP kept it going on for about 10 extra weeks, and we didn’t make a single sale in 10 weeks with a 100 percent effort. So that was kind of like, OK, this is what’s happening.

It’s time to shut down. I was also going through a lawsuit at the time. So like, shut down personal bankruptcy happens because of the lawsuit. And I used to be a landlord as well for a long time. And all of my tenants quit paying rent because they knew they couldn’t be kicked out.

And I say that the way I see it, because none of them were actually financially impacted by COVID. They just chose to quit paying rent because they knew they could live for free. So a lot of things happen in a short amount of time where that kind of storm at sea comes into play.

And I feel like I was on a boat that just got wiped out and I was left without kind of a plank of wood and me hanging on, going, well, I’m not dead. So what’s next? Yeah, that’s a that’s, in a nutshell, the great Band-Aid rip.

Dave Crysler

Yeah man, well I know, you shared that story with me previously and each time I hear it, it’s just, I can resonate with the feelings at different points because, you know, anybody and everybody was impacted one way or another, you know, and even the people that maybe didn’t lose their job or didn’t lose their business, you know, maybe somebody in their family did. And, you know, everybody can feel that. And for the people that did have businesses that had to shut down that weren’t able to keep things going, even for a short period of time with the help that was available or potentially did it qualify for whatever reason; and, you know, I feel like most people can relate to your story and different points of it. But I think the other part for me that I’m most excited about, just in general and for you, is kind of what that’s now led into.

And I feel like it is just it’s a really, you know, even though it’s the entrepreneurship is the journey. Right. That’s what I really feel whenever I hear your story because it’s not that destination when you were at the destination and here you go.

You know, who saw this coming? Right. And no matter the amount of effort, the amount of things that you were trying to still push through that wall and it just wasn’t happening. So, you know, regroup. And now we’re at a different point in your business.

And that’s really what I want to get into next, is really kind of digging into the 1 minute media and learning a little bit more about that and kind of now shifting as we are coming out of COVID and kind of the, you know, maybe rebirth is the best word for it, I don’t know, but, you know, the start of kind of a different chapter of your entrepreneurial journey. I think it’s inspirational just from the standpoint of saying I’ve survived.

And, you know, entrepreneurship is a, it’s a battlefield, you know.

Dan Bennett

It is and there isn’t a destination, that’s something I had to learn along the way. Luckily, I did kind of absorb that fact before COVID hit. So it wasn’t surprising in that sense.

And it’s definitely not the only tough thing I’ve been through in my life. So there was some of that resiliency I think I shared with you. I had a group of friends. I remember the number because I was counting them, those 12 and the 12th one to say, you know, this sucks, man, I hate to see you going through this, but I love that I know you’re a resilient person. You’re going to be OK. And I just got upset, like I’m sick of hearing that, you know, it’s like when does resiliency turn into stupidity and maybe you shouldn’t get back up.

Maybe I should just go get a job and watch football on Sundays and like, you know, and I snapped out of that very quick because I’m not built for, you know, the employee world. But, yeah, it sent me in a direction of discovery.

Dave Crysler

Yeah. Well, that’s you know, you did mention that to me before. I appreciate you kind of re-bringing that up because I think, you know, it is difficult, right? It is difficult to fight through, no matter if you’re in that point or you’re just feeling that imposter syndrome of like why?

You know, I don’t I don’t think this is what you guys should be talking to me about this. You know, I think those feelings are valid for a lot. And can you just kind of briefly share like what was something that helped you get through that particular kind of like, you know what?

No, I’m not done fighting yet. And this isn’t crazy. This isn’t you know, I’m not wasting time. I’m not wasting money. This is just one more step back in my path to get to where I’m going to be going. What was that for you?

Dan Bennett

You know, one big thing that kind of I preach a little bit is, is to sit in the sadness. And a lot of times that happens just in mental health in general. I’m definitely someone who has, you know, since my early 30s dealt with depression, and being in an entrepreneurial environment can fuel that fire sometimes. So you really have to be, you know, really self-aware and in tune with your own mental health.

But part of that for me, anyway, and I’m not diagnosing anyone else and saying what they should do, but part of that for me has been just accepting the ebb and flow and remembering that ebb and flow are both in there.

And so, you know, while I pictured myself holding on to this plank at sea, and, you know, the storm finally cleared, I’m like, OK, what’s next? I just really allowed myself to kind of sit in that part of what I did was literally disappear out into the wilderness.

And I knew going out, being quiet, I did have an old iPad with some documentaries on it. But like I didn’t have electronics, didn’t have a TV, I didn’t have entertainment. I took a book and a whiteboard in my brain.

And I just went to try and discover something or see what was next. And sitting quiet, even though the words are beautiful and it was summer and all these things, I even saw a bald eagle over the small lake I had access to like it was gorgeous.

I was still sitting there with just me and my brain. And there were some days that were like just tough, you know? But I allowed myself to sit because I knew that ebb and flow means one comes, one goes, and something is going to shift, especially if I stick around and wait for the ride.

So that’s kind of one of the things I was giving myself permission to feel bad. And obviously, everyone’s got a different threshold. You don’t want to wallow in that forever. But just knowing that feeling bad is OK and happiness is not a destination either.

So this ebb and flow back and forth is OK. And this just happened to be one of my low points. That was a huge shift for me, just giving myself permission. And oftentimes when I’m on different shows, interviewing, just being asked questions in general, I get asked the question, you know, like what’s your best piece of advice for an entrepreneur or whatever?

And a lot of times what I say is like, go easy on yourself, you know, like we beat ourselves up enough and there’s no way to get fully away from beating yourself up. But if you can keep top of mind to me, just be nice to yourself every once in a while.

So that’s what I did, allowing myself to sit and kind of the like ugh; I guess I am resilient, but man, I’m sick of getting up. It seems like every, you know, go through the whole thing. I also found some comfort and peace in knowing that I was being nice to myself.

I was taking a little time. I was going out, you know, into the wilderness, and I was just breathing fresh air and reading the book and like trying to give myself a little bit of just time off, even though the world gave me time off.

Dave Crysler

Yeah.

Dan Bennett

You know, taking some of that time a purpose. That’s a big one. And it’s kind of heady. And I get that. But like just having the awareness of yourself and how you operate and letting yourself know it’s OK to feel bad and to sit in it for a second and know that that’s part of the process.

Dave Crysler

Yeah. I mean, you know, we’re we are our own worst critics by far, and I really appreciate you sharing that, because I think so many again, so many people can just relate to those feelings and not to say that it’s a one size fits all and that you work yourself out of that in a different; different people, kind of different answers.

But I appreciate you sharing that, because maybe that will help somebody out there that’s in that place right now that hasn’t kind of figured out what that next move is and is still being impacted by COVID and or some other outside situation.

And so I’m hopeful that that reaches somebody that’s maybe looking for a little bit of, hey, I’ve been here because I think that’s important from just straight-up human standpoint and entrepreneurial standpoint. I would say that you know, entrepreneurship is the hardest thing I have ever done out of my things that I thought were hard in life.

Dan Bennett

Yeah.

Dave Crysler

And, you know, it can be a lonely place because unless you’re doing it, not many people understand the requirements, I’ll say. So I appreciate you sharing that. So let’s jump into 1 minute media. And if you could just share a little bit more about kind of what it’s all about and how you look to

support people from that standpoint, kind of what’s your business look like today? Coming again, kind of coming out of pandemic. Now you’re concentrating on 1 minute media. Among other things. But let’s kind of jump into that a little bit.

Dan Bennett

Cool. Yeah. So during shutting down and then that self-reflection that happened later, I kind of looked at the last five and a half years of business and realized, oh, man, my mantra wasn’t big enough because all I ever said out loud, and I said it many, many times was I just want to make enough revenue to hire cool people so they don’t get to work for crappy companies, you know. And we had done that, and I didn’t even really realize that had happened until we shut down. I’m like sending everyone on their way and giving final paychecks and whatever.

I’m like, I’m in. I accomplished what I said. I need to think bigger. You know, and kind of looking back at that, we lose some used some of that last time to take 1 minute media from IRL, in real life to digital.

So I started working on that and built that out. And where it originated was I had done work and normally I don’t drop names, but I’m starting to drop them more and more when I’m interviewed now because I want people to understand the gravity of how this impacted me.

So it’s working for companies like Harley Davidson, Camaro, Pantene, Nerf, like big companies with budgets and whole creative, you know, entities inside of them and doing some pretty incredible work. A lot of it. I got some great stories and it was super fun, but it wasn’t very fulfilling.

And I’d come home to Flint where there’s all these micro-businesses who could never afford me. And I would get bummed out because I’m like, how do I even the playing field, you know, and tech has done a lot for that, and so has the Internet.

So I’m like, how do I leverage these things to try to kind of bridge this gap? And I started thinking about like, well, if people were willing to learn a little bit, I could offload 70 percent of what I do onto them.

And I’d already been doing that. And some of my corporate work by if there was a budget discrepancy, I’d be like, OK, you guys are the producers that so if you get the talent and you lock down the locations and someone’s a point person to make sure we stay on schedule, I’ll take my price down because you’re handling that. And a lot of times they would take advantage of that. So I was trying to think along those lines and that bridge was like, OK, instead of I do everything for you, which is what the big dogs can afford, I teach you how to do most of it by yourself.

And then it becomes affordable for you. And I can still help on the back end, whether that’s through editing or consulting or strategy, and give you what you need. And that was kind of the birth of it. So we took the last about 12 weeks that we were in physical office at one office that we had before shutting down and turned in the keys and stuff. And I built out 1 minute media, the digital version. So currently it stands as coursework, 15 videos to teach you all the basics, to make video with something as simple as a smartphone.

And then private membership. And there’s all kinds of goodies in the group. So I put ongoing video content that’s really helpful for people trying to make their own videos and tell their stories. I go live, you know, and answer questions live so people tune in, and they can get the problem solved right away.

We got dedicated email the whole bit just to get people from zero to being comfortable on camera and creating their own video content on a regular basis. And it’s really cool because I’ve had people who learn everything and go, and my favorite members are the ones who don’t pay me anymore because they learned what they needed and then got really good at it. And then just they do their own editing. They do their own stuff. And that was the road they took.

And then I have other, you know, people who just on an ongoing basis to me, when they need a little bit of help and create content here and there, and they’re happy with that. So it kind of hits the spectrum there. And over the last few months, I should back up a little bit coming out of the woods anyway I wanted to do things different this time, and I knew I had to freelance to make money while I figured out what I was going to do.

But I want to be really picky about who I worked with. So the clients I’ve worked with over the last 10 months, I’ve been really picky about. And that has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made is to say no to things, to be picky about things, or to just give space for them or me to say this might not be a good fit, but I wish you good luck.

So it’s been a big part of that, that journey, too. And what that’s led to is there’s kind of like a choice if you’re going to if you’re interested in making your own video as a startup entrepreneur or even a small organization within a bigger organization or whatever, there’s kind of a choice. There is more do it yourself so you can plug into the coursework, the private membership, limited access to me and discounted rates, and technical like editing and motion graphics, or I can work with you directly.

And that goes a whole lot faster, but it costs more money. And that’s kind of the two you know when someone bumps into me and they’re like, I do want to make my own video, I want to up the production quality, I want to do it on a regular basis.

They just have a choice. Do you want to do it yourself with a little bit of help or do you want me to do it with you? And that’s kind of what it’s turned into. And it’s become this incredible kind of fulfillment center, you know because I’ve known for six years.

Business owners need to be able to create video content. And not all businesses are big enough to have a creative department or a marketing department where they’re creating, you know, content internally. But with just a little bit of work with me, you can do that and you can do it as a solopreneur.

So it’s just been fun to empower people. And I give this analogy because they don’t have a better one yet. And I don’t know how this will translate audio-only, but I’ll do my best. I imagine this row of cars and their beautiful cars, they’re all different, you know, race cars and supercars and just amazing vehicles.

And every one of them’s got a trained driver in it. And the car is perfect. The driver is perfect. They get everything they need except their wheels around a little patch of ice. And my whole job is just to take a crowbar, get behind them, and just push them forward until they hit cement and then go.

And until I get a better metaphor, that is the one I’m rolling with. But now that I’m finding my flow. Things are working very well. I’m doing the best I’ve ever done in my career, which is exciting. After losing everything a year ago, there’s been this upward trajectory.

It’s been an incredible ride. I feel like when I’m doing my best work, I’m just crowbarred crowbar in cars down the line all day long. It’s my whole job is to take something awesome you’re already doing or who you are that’s already awesome and help you capture it and get it out to your audience.

And that’s it. I don’t create stories. I don’t write them from scratch. I don’t try and turn you into something you’re not. I just capture what you are and try and get it out. And it’s been fun, man.

It’s been fun.

Dave Crysler

Yeah, that’s so awesome. I, I love the metaphor, by the way. And, you know, being from Michigan. Good that you used, you know, an auto reference. Right. But I think what’s so cool about it is, you know, first off, a lot of people, I would imagine, kind of say, OK, I recognize the need here.

You see a lot more video being produced. You see, again, pandemic, right? Like it seemed like everybody was creating content, some good content, some not so great content so high production values, some not so much. But I think the real struggle is kind of getting comfortable in figuring out, you know, it sounds weird, but I think it’s figuring out who you really are. And to your point, kind of not necessarily creating an explainer video and not necessarily scripting things where it’s like, you know, and you could see this in other people’s content, right. Like, OK, let’s not go out there and say, well, here’s exactly what we do.

Here’s all the features and benefits. And buy from me, buy from me, buy from me, it’s really about capturing kind of unique moments in your world. And that’s what I love about what you’re doing, is you’re helping people get comfortable doing that.

And I know from my own content creation and kind of personal experience how challenging that was. I, I remember the very first time and it wasn’t that long ago that, you know, this marketing company we were working with was like, you have so much content creation potential.

I’m like, where? Like, I, I don’t think so, you know, and it’s not until you start kind of talking through that and figuring out, OK, you know, here’s a little bit of that production value that really sends it over the top, but here’s how you capture your unique moments and then trying to translate that back into value for your audience.

That’s what I really love about what you’re doing. It’s not it’s not about necessarily changing or making stories. It’s really just, you know, to your point, it’s that capturing those little moments, sharing the little moments with your potential audience.

And little by little, it creates the buzz, it creates conversation and connections with people and grows your audience, and hopefully, then that translates into growing an inbound pipeline for you, which I think is probably the ultimate goal for anybody that’s working on content creation.

Dan Bennett

Yeah. Yeah. For those listening, I’ve been nodding emphatically for the last couple of minutes because you are so on the money. And a lot of times people get especially in business, they get caught up in the ones and zeros, ticking the boxes, filling in the, you know, standard operating procedure and asterisk.

That’s all super important. But a lot of things get neglected. And in business, relationship is a huge part of it, whether it’s the person on the chat talking to an individual, and that’s one out of a million or it’s just you and your client, one on one, relationship is everything.

And how people feel while having their problems solved is what will bring them back. And a big part of that is exactly what you said. It’s, you know, just people a couple of layers back off the onion. And who’s the person?

What gets you up in the morning? What drives you? You know, I’ve even had people who do something very, very straightforward, like consulting with executives on their executive presence when they get presentations or interact with their teams. Very, very you know what, from the outside could look as dry and boring and cut straight.

You know, just this is the work we do. I’m a consultant. Talk about their office setup, like the tools they use and maybe some of the software they use and their morning routine or ritual and how they get some coffee and they sit down and they got a standup desk so they can they go, you know, a couple of hours, sit in a couple of hours, and that really works for them.

Nothing to do with executive presence at all, but their audience getting to see their clients, getting to see how they work is this little portal, and every little portal you can create just creates more trust.

It creates more relatability for the average person. And oddly enough, if you really pay attention to the big, big dogs, Nike, Apple, Coke, the ones that can like spend so much money just getting in front of you a bunch doesn’t even matter what the commercial says.

They are all vying to be more relatable because they’re so big that they lose that connection. And then a bunch of small businesses are trying to be like the big dogs. And just I got to get in front of you 17 times.

You need to know this logo. And it’s so funny that everyone’s trying to be what they currently aren’t. And I think a good mix is where we should be. And part of that’s telling your story. And it does not, like you said, always had to be features and benefits.

Most of the time. I don’t care about that stuff. Yeah. If if you’ve built a great product and it’s a software as a service and I pay you 10 bucks a month and it works for me, I don’t want to necessarily know who your engineers are, but I would like to know how maybe since I use this and recommend it all the time, I could plug into a five-dollar cut affiliate program because people buy this because of me anyway. And I can have that one on one conversation with someone. They’re like, hey, I’ve noticed you send people our way.

We will pay you for that. You should be part of the affiliate program. So just I’m making that up. But like a small part of just that communication as I ran across that video that told me a little bit more of your story and your story is you love solving problems.

So here’s this affiliate program so you can tell more people how they can solve theirs. Just as simple as that. You know, and I, I think people, you know, with those ones and zeros and ticking the boxes and the blueprints and all the stuff, people forget that we’re all humans.

And we do just kind of want to know how your weekend was or whatever. One of the things I do is Eddison deck pulls, just idea generation deck. And I pull one. I don’t know what I’m going to see.

And I try and relate it back to business development or storytelling somehow. And it’s fun for me because it’s good exercise. I don’t know what’s on the card. So it’s like in the moment you get to share it with me.

They’re like forty-five seconds long and it lets someone look into my world. It lets them see how my brain works in a way that’s not scripted and formatted. I can film four of those and edit four of those in about a half-hour total and schedule once a week for the next month.

And here’s this fun little glimpse into my life and my business. And people love those videos. They love those videos. I love making them, but they love them and they’re not necessarily valuable in the way that if you follow me, you can take that video and go implement it in your business and do better now, but they are still valuable to people. And I can’t explain all the reasons why. But I know part of his story in part is relatability.

Dave Crysler

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so much great stuff. And what you just said, you know, it’s I like the part about big brands trying to be more relatable and small brands trying to be the big brands because they see them spending the money on the ad dollars, they see the results of it. But not too many people want to go back and see what the story was or the ramp-up from inception to today?

d that will listen to your, you know, your story or your problem or whatever it is, and help you work through that and do it in a meaningful way where you feel, you know, super in tune and valued all of those things. And the only way to do that, I feel like, is to let people into that world. And, you know, it’s I would say pre-pandemic. Right. A lot of in-person sales that were happening, especially small business. Those people were great at that.

But put them in this setting where it’s virtual and camera and you’re looking at a, you know, a little dark circle of, you know, nothingness and you lose that connection. So you have to reengage and relearn kind of that skill set in this different environment.

You know, I just think all of that was just really right on the money for helping people kind of bridge that gap, start getting comfortable and kind of, let’s face it, explore some new frontiers in some cases, because it can be uncomfortable, especially when you’re first starting out, so.

Dan Bennett

Yeah. Yeah, I’ve built tools just for that, because over time, it’s become more and more evident that a lot of people, even people I didn’t know, people that were members of 1 minute media and just never told me have struggled with getting on camera and getting used to it and all that kind of stuff.

And I knew I had my own struggle, but I never really thought that it’s almost a hundred percent of people who start making video content have some kind of reservation, whether they don’t like their own voice, which is the number one complaint.

any way I can.

So we have sandbox dot video, which is a little landing page that goes to a free community where you can take part in little challenges and you can upload video for loving critique. You can still get that feedback and critique from other entrepreneurs who are in a similar position to you but do it in a place where you’re not fully public yet, you know, so I’m trying to do everything I can in that space from zero to creating ongoing video content and telling a great story why you do it and offer some sort of tool or help along the way because it’s a journey.

And the good thing is entrepreneurs are already used to journeys like we’ve said. So this is just another one. And it’s a really powerful one. And I would encourage anyone thinking about doing it, make a video and show people you trust and don’t make it public or go to, you know, sandbox dot video and join us and just put some stuff up knowing that there is no trolls there. And, you know, start to get those reps in because it’s not video for the sake of the video, because video is trendy and hot. It’s not tech for tech’s sake and software for software’s sake.

It’s you a human. Possibly being viewed by another human who might be in their PJs with Cheeto dust on their shirt and their bed watching a video on a Saturday relating to you and building that know like and trust without even being in the room with them.

And how powerful is that? We can never get anyone to 100 percent of what it’s like to sit across the table from someone or share a coffee. But I always say a grand slam for me is 80. If we can get someone to 80 percent of what it’s like to actually meet you, these three magic things happen with video, especially if you tell a great story inside a video. The first thing is you start to build that rapport, that know, like, and trust that we all are after without meeting anyone. And that’s super powerful. The next one is I don’t have a better word for it yet.

I talk about it all the time, so I should have. But there is like micro-fame that comes with being on a screen. And it could be you made a YouTube video and your next-door neighbor, you’ve seen one hundred thousand times saw it.

And then like I saw you on YouTube, there’s just something about creating content where there’s a little bit of recognizability and there’s a little bit of like, oh, you’re doing that thing and that’s up there and I’m down here.

Take advantage of it. I don’t know why it exists, but as humans, we have this like kind of micro-fame thing when we see someone on the screen. And then the third thing is, if someone has interacted with your content, they’ve gotten that awesome, like, you know, 80 percent of what it’s like to actually meet you, and then they ever do meet you in real life. A sales call on Zoom networking meeting, a phone call. They ever get to interface with you in some way in real life. And you are who they thought you were based on your content.

It’s a done deal. I mean, whether a deal happens or not is up to you, but it’s a done deal because, you know, it’s that thing that people say never meet your heroes because you might be disappointed if you come through after creating content and when people talk with you and they’re like, you’re just as cool as they hoped you were when they saw your content and it locks in then that know like and trust is real and you have something to build from. And 90 percent of everything I just said can happen without you ever meeting someone.

And that’s incredible.

Dave Crysler

It really is incredible. The only thing I would add to that is the fact that content is evergreen, right? It’s always out there. And just the fact that you could potentially stumble across for one of a number of reasons, something, you know, on Facebook, on YouTube.

I mean, and any of the social channels. Right. But you could have produced a video or written content or blog post or a tweet even. Right. You could encounter that months, years after the fact, which is just so incredible to me.

That, one, it lives for so long. And a lot of it doesn’t, it recycles. But just the fact that the potential is out there for as you’re creating this, you know, people get to see you at different points in your journey, depending on the type of content that you’re creating.

And that can obviously generate a connection. But, you know, it’s that that’s what I find on top of all of what you just said because I 100 percent agree it’s that fact that it stays out there, you know, and you don’t know necessarily when somebody may come across what you’re doing.

So, yeah, I do.

Dan Bennett

It’s incredible, man. I have a couple of videos on my YouTube channel that has went like micro viral. So because of searchability, they have way more views than my other ongoing videos. And one has to do with free social media scheduling and one has to do with what’s the best mic for Zoom like we’re all here now. What’s a great mic for Zoom? And those two videos cumulatively have like 50,000 views or something, and it goes the other way, too. So we’re on a journey as crazy that this evergreen piece of content just follows me as I go.

Dave Crysler

Yeah.

Dan Bennett

On the other side of it, I still almost daily get comments on these videos where someone’s like, this was such a great video. I was trying to figure out how to not have to pay for buffer or some other scheduling program and do it for free because I’m only on Facebook and Twitter.

You showed me how. Thank you. And I’m reminded almost every day they’re on a journey to and something I created almost a year ago. They’ve crossed paths with, at the beginning of their journey. And it’s like, oh, I got to remember that happens like that.

Yeah. So I love that you brought that up because it’s powerful. It just is. And sometimes I’ll even have people say, you know, I loved blah, blah, blah, and I don’t even remember doing it. I’m like, wait, what?

Yeah. That video you did about it? Oh, yeah. I made that a year ago. I forgot. Yeah. So it’s it’s worth doing. It’s at least I should say it’s worth exploring. If you’re a business owner, a startup, you know, someone who runs a creative department in your company, video and great storytelling with them, videos that explore it if you’re not already for sure.

Dave Crysler

Yeah. So, Dan, I want to wrap up because I want to be mindful of time here. But before I let you go, and maybe you can kind of roll this into how people can connect with you, but give that business owner, give that entrepreneur; how can they what’s an actionable step that they can start exploring this and maybe start to feel comfortable?

You mentioned that one tool that you guys have that’s available that would be a great first step. What’s something else that you could do as kind of recognizing that, you know, there’s a lot of first-time people, whether it’s just because now they’re doing way more Zoom’s or they really are starting to feel like, hey, I need to get into this video content creation, what’s something that they can do to start to explore that and get a couple of reps in or start to put some practice towards that?

Dan Bennett

Cool. Yeah. So a couple of things came to mind. One is because a lot of people are on Zoom, but they’re not recording videos, so they’re not creating video content. And I’m doing air quotes. I, you know, YouTube dot com forward slash theantipreneur, you know, I have videos on there about using a certain kind of microphone to sound good and Zoom.

I got several of them. There’s cheap and expensive; runs the gamut. Just something as simple as showing up to your next meeting, sounding and looking really good. Starts to make other people take you more serious.

You seem like an authority in your field. You might actually close more sales if you do. You know your sales calls on Zoom. If you look and sound good instead of looking up your nose because your laptop is pointed at the ceiling.

So there’s like this like kind of psychological effect that comes with it. So even if you’re not creating video content, I would definitely say, you know, go check out some of my videos. Easy to find online so you can always ask me questions.

I’ll answer for free. But just to kind of step up your game a little bit with video. Once you do that, you can also just jump into Zoom alone and hit that record button. So use your new gear and record with something as simple as Zoom.

The other thing is I have a downloadable tool, and I’ll try and explain this real quick because it’s not complex. But a lot of times the story development, which is the heart of everything I do, it’s the deep work that I do with a lot of clients.

A lot of people only understand story as fiction. So Star Wars, Harry Potter, Stephen King, you know, all their favorite movies and books and video games and all that kind of stuff. And that’s incredibly important. And it’s huge.

But that’s only one small component of storytelling. The other is real-life stories. Your grandpa telling me how he caught that big fish. Then he shows you the picture and he won that bass fishing competition. And it’s like this real-life thing to happen.

And now you have relatability with your grandpa because you’re like, oh, yeah, my grandpa won this fishing competition, look at this picture. This is incredible. It feels like fiction, but it’s real life and its relatability. So I have it’s super straightforward it’s iamtheantiprenur dot come forward slash story spine. And that’s like spine in your back and story spine is what Pixar and Disney have used forever for their high-level story development.

It’s just once upon a time until one day something changed. And because of that, this happened. And because of that, this happened until one day, finally, and then ever since then. And it’s just this very high level. And if you look at any Disney Pixar movie, they follow this formula.

What I like to do is give that away so you can just download a PDF. It just puts you on our newsletter list and that’s it. And you can use this PDF. I got my own story in there about how I kind of found entrepreneurship, and I use the stories I find to tell you the story, and then I give you access to download the stories, find in a blank Google doc so you can fill it in yourself. And what that does is it captures this thing that people are stuck on, which is story is only fiction, but it allows you to fill in the blanks.

So you could say, OK, once upon a time, a government shutdown happened because of COVID and because, you know, and then one day I decided maybe I’m going to start my own business. And because of that, I started plugging into the Chamber of Commerce and going to networking meetings or whatever. And because of that, you can literally fill it in with a real-life story and start to get a sense of how many hundreds, maybe even thousands of stories you actually have to tell.

And then one day when you’re ready to jump in front of that camera, you’ll understand, oh, this is the medium, this is the vehicle that’ll take all these stories where they’re going. So I like to give that one away because it’s a way to bridge the fiction and nonfiction world and see that because business owners want tools. And I get it as much as I try and convince them, you’re a great storyteller already, just trust me.

They want to go through the process and feel it. And I get it. So, yeah, you can download that for free and just do it over and over. Fill it in with real-life stuff, with business stuff, with, you know, what you’re going through right now.

And then you start seeing, ooh, I could even once upon a time I had an idea for a new product. So one day I sketched it and I showed it to an investor. And because of that, we actually started meeting about this might be a possibility.

And because of that, you know, and you can fill it in with anything. It could be your product or service, you, your customer, and you start seeing like, oh, man, I could do this a hundred times. Like I got so much stuff to talk about.

So it’s a very long answer to check out my YouTube and go get the stories, find those are two great places to start. And then yet again, sandbox dot video is free. You can just go there, sign up to it’s a circle dot eso community.

So it feels a lot like Facebook is very familiar. So you just you can just jump in there, post, lurk, [it] doesn’t matter. Be part of the community and start getting those reps in on camera. Very cool. Yeah, very cool, man.

Dave Crysler

I really appreciate that. And I’ll make sure that I link all of that in the show notes for anybody that is interested. Dan, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. Really appreciate your time. Really appreciate you sharing your story in your journey with us.

I think so many tremendous takeaways and wish you nothing but success in the future man, thanks so much.

Dan Bennett

I appreciate it’s been awesome getting to know you and thanks for giving me a little bit of your platform.

Dave Crysler

 Thank you so much for listening today.

If we brought you any value, please rate subscribe and share our podcast. Also, be sure to connect with us on social media by searching at the Crysler Club until next week. I’m your host, Dave Crysler.